No Pain, No Gain – The Kitchen Remodel (Part 1)

If I had to rank all the rooms in my house for which room was the most offensive when we purchased it, the kitchen would take first place. The upstairs bath with its green sinks and rotting shower would take second. The living room would come in at a close third, with its (former) red carpet and pink brick, but more on all that later. Today, we are addressing the kitchen. Hands down, the most formidable project I have ever undertaken.

Someday I’m going to write a post on the top ten things I’ve learned about house remodels. Numbers one through ten will be “expect everything to take longer than you thought, be more difficult than you thought, and to cost more than you thought.”

Then, when I’m done with that post, I’m going to write one about what to expect from old houses. Things like petrified contact papered shelves, and thick compacted pads of grease on cabinets will be on that list.

Then when I’m done giving people a migraine with ugly pictures and dire warnings…I’ll write a post about how when you’ve painted so much you have blisters on your fingers, and you’re teetering on the edge of a nervous break down over the mayhem…

…and just when you’re convinced you are absolutely beyond painting another stroke…suddenly the sun will shine again, and the backaches will all be forgotten. I think I’d just have to write a post to say your hard work is worth it, because I really think it is you know.

Here’s a bit of info that you might find helpful if you happen to find yourself in possession of hideously ugly dated kitchen and want to spruce it up a bit.

We ripped off the old pink counter tops ourselves. The Mister was the master craftsmen who was responsible for putting new counter tops down. He used just plain old pine boards, 24 inches wide, from the hardware store. He glued them down with liquid nail, and then screwed them on from the under side. I sanded them, stained them with a black stain, and put six coats of a floor grade sealer on them.

We had an electrician run us new wire for the appliances. A contractor took out the wall around the old fridge, which we replaced with open shelves. He also took out the drawers where the dishwasher now is installed. The rest of the work we did ourselves.

Truth be told, that spot where the old oven was, is still a gaping a hole. That’s why this is “part 1″ of the kitchen remodel. Also, if you’ll kindly ignore the floor, it’s still waiting to be done as well. And then there’s the pantry, which is still 1950′s pink…but considering from where we started, I can deal with it for the time being just fine, thank you!

There was a four inch gap on either side of our new oven where the old counter tops had stopped. The Mister concealed this quite cleverly with adding in two spice racks on either side of the oven.

I saved us a nice bit of change by reusing all the old cabinet hardware instead of buying new. I soaked them in stripper, and then spray painted all of it black.

There’s also the matter of this door, that doesn’t actually open. Not the most fancy function for a door I’d have to say, I suppose its free home security? A few hooks makes it serviceable until it can either be removed or replaced.

We also installed a new sink and faucet. I made the curtains, and the pendent light is just a hardware store kit stuck into an old pitcher.

So that about wraps it up on the kitchen for the time being! Hopefully we can revisit it in the not so distant future for the full and complete package. Were you wondering why I chose black and white for the color scheme? Well my dear, it’s like this, I do not plan to ever, ever, repaint this kitchen, or any other kitchen, in this life, nor the one hereafter…so I, in solemn protest of the tides of color trends, chose colors which will stand immortal and enduring…or at least until the end of my lifetime anyway.

It does my little heart good to see this post…it chases out all the grumbles over painting what’s left of the house to be done. It can’t be as bad as all that! Famous. last. words.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

88 Responses to No Pain, No Gain – The Kitchen Remodel (Part 1)

Your kitchen looks amazing and I can only imagine how much you enjoy looking at it know how much work it was and where you ‘brought it from’ !!
You are so talented in your ability to ‘see’ what something has the potential to be. I LOVE all your before and after stories…
Hugs to you and your girls!

I am considering wood countertops. I am concerned about upkeep and water damage between my sink and dishwasher. My set up in this area is much like yours. I’m interested in your thoughts now that you have had some time with yours….

I can’t believe how amazing your kitchen looks! ‘ll be curious to know how the countertops hold up over time, what a great and inexpensive solution! I love your white cabinets too, really opens the place up; I wish the hubby would let me paint our cabinets… they really need something done to them.

Looks soooo much better…with a “simple” paint job…kidding! About the “simple” part…serious about the “looks so much better part”. I seem to keep running into your blog…guess it’s time to subscribe! Have a fantastic weekend!!

It looks amazing. I recently saw the sun again during our kitchen re-do. We are so close to being done and can’t wait to feel the relief of being finished. I know you are feeling that right now! I am loving those countertops. I don’t usually like things painted black but those are amazing!

Love it! We’re in the middle of renovating our kitchen right now, and I’m learning everything you talked about. It really is harder, more time-intensive, and more expensive than you think it will be! I’m hoping my “after” turns out to be as nice as yours. And I’m so glad you mentioned using a 24″ board as your counter. I was going to do 2×8′s but using one board instead of gluing three together sounds so much easier.

Holy bleep, and I thought my kitchen was dated when we moved in…I had orange/pink wallpaper with huge hydrangeas on it, mud colored checkerboard tiles and yellowed cabinets….and the icing? It came with white countertops sprinkled with multi colored confetti….

Anyway, enough about mine…I love what you did. It looks bright, fresh and brand new. The area where the fridge was looks amazing!

Congratulations on getting closer to the finish line and I hope the rest goes a lot easier!

Thanks Christine! Sounds like you had an ultra fun kitchen to work on…I’m so glad I didn’t have wallpaper in the mix! I don’t think my sanity would have survived. =) Thanks so much for stopping by!
Abby

I love it! It looks great! Those counter tops are amazing! Do you know which brand of sealer you used? We covered out gross countertops in concrete and now the sealer sticks to everything. It is a nightmare!

Manda,
The sealer I used was Minwax water based oil-modified polyurethane in clear gloss. Its supposed to be good for floors and very durable. I haven’t had any problems with bags or stuff sticking to it. Good luck!
Abby

I’m visiting from Cozy Little House today and I feel compelled to leave a comment to tell you what an amazing transformation you’ve accomplished!! Your wood countertops are beautiful and your kitchen is filled with charming details that you can’t find in a new kitchen. Yes, I agree, all your hard work has paid off.

Hi Abby – I’m coming over from Better After today lured by your painted panel dining room. I have a similar paneling dilemma in what we affectionately call the Lumberjack kitchen (an EIK areas our main kitchen, but we have a full dining room as well). How did you prep the paneling and what brand of primer and.or paint did you use? Any concern of yellowing? The countertop is awesome as well and might be a nice (and inexpensive) upgrade from the navy tiles we currently have. Tiles + grout lines in a kitchen = constant grease culverts. Gross!!

Coming from Better After…and this is DEFINITELY a Better After story! I know what an enormous task it is…I did it in my own kitchen almost 10 years ago to cover the UG-LEEEE 70′s plywood cabinets and walls with 3, yes 3, different kids of paneling. OH and the LOVELY blue indoor/outdoor carpeting that was GLUED to the 30+ year old vinyl…super. After 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of sage color paint and 3 coats of sealer, the cabinets were DONE and have held up extremely well…even made the old spottled grey formica counter look decent. I’m now looking into replacing the kitchen with a pantry that is more than 10″ wide but just goes to show what a “simple” paint job can do to lighten and brighten in the meantime. Great job!!!!!!

This renovation turn into the nice result and the title is really perfect for this.Well lately i am planning to a renovation for my kitchen and bathroom in my home in Finland and i am looking for different kind of kitchen design and this is impress me a lot.

Beautiful work (I found you through Better After & can’t wait to spend my snow day reading through). Can you tell me more about the artwork you hung under the cabinets? They caught my eye.

We had a similar kitchen/family room, dark stained pine. After throwing up color after color, I realized white was the best choice as I would get tired of a color after 6 months. It makes all the difference. Trying to figure out if I could use your countertop idea…

Was there plywood under the existing countertops? We are considering wood and I am the handy one in our family. I can tell there is nothing under our laminate so if I rip it out, I either have to lay Plywood or attach to the cabinets. Thanks and your kitchen was well worth the sweat equity.

LOVE THESE COUNTERTOPS!We are restoring a bad flip job on a house from 1929, and I’m dying for wooden countertops. How are they holding up? Do you have a lot of dings and scratches? I ask because I built our dining table out of fir, which is also a soft wood, and even though we eat in front of the TV most nights, it’s still dinged up on top. So I’m scared to use pine or fir on the counters. I’d love input now that you’ve been living with them for a while!

Hi I would love an update on how your countertops are holding up. I really want to do black/india ink stained wood countertops in our kitchen. I was also wondering if you could guess about how much they cost and about how many square feet. Trying to compare prices Your kitchen looks great! Thanks.

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I LOVE LOVE LOVE the countertops! Our counters are so dated…yellow laminate. We don’t really have the budget to get new ones at this time and I want something economical for our area. We would never get a return on a huge countertop investment and we have a lot of counter. But anyway, my question is…Is the sealer you used food safe? How does that work? Again, your kitchen is just beautiful and the counter are gorgeous!

Hey Abby! I LOVE what you’ve done!! Found this post knowing I wanted stained black clountertops but not sure which stain to get – I don’t suppose you remember what you used? Thanks in advance and lovely work!

She posted the info back on 9/23/13. I found it while I was looking for the same info.

The sealer I used was Minwax water based oil-modified polyurethane in clear gloss. Its supposed to be good for floors and very durable. I haven’t had any problems with bags or stuff sticking to it. Good luck!
Abby

I came across your DIY kitchen counters in Pinterest and like others am curious how they are holding up now? I would love to do something like that in our house but haven’t found many long term results people have had. Thanks for the great tutorial! I hope this is something you would still recommend for people to think about trying!

Abby. Beautiful! I just a finished a 5 week bathroom remodel and my fiance couldn’t shower for 5 weeks. You know men and baths don’t work so he opted with our solar camping shower in the backyard. Good thing we live near the country. As for your kitchen. Gorgeous. I’m about to start our kitchen remodel with pine countertops. I am going to weather our wood with the vineger wood method. Repainted our cabinets and adding a wall of counter space but using and faceliftimg an old dresser doe the cabinets. I’m exited about this but you blog has inspired me more I just messages this blog to my fiance. Thank you for sharing.

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Welcome to chapter37! I'm Abby, the face behind the blog, and I'm so glad you are here! I call myself mom to four beautiful stories being written...two typical girls full of sparkles and giggles, one former preemie winning her battles one at a time, and a little man living life with gusto despite kidney failure and liver cancer. I write about the kids, the house, and all the mess in between. I hold the opinion that anything in life can be handled with God, a paint brush and a healthy sense of humor!